Ventilated leather seats compared to F150 seats?

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wfodave

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I traded an F150 with cooled leather seats for a Grand Cherokee with just perforated leather seats. I literally cannot drive the GC in the summer in pants (vs. shorts) without sweating, regardless of how cool the ambient air is. I'm hopefully trading the GC in on Ram 2500 with ventilated leather seats. I say ventilated instead of cooled, because as I understand it, the RAM is just circulating cabin air through the seats to help cool you, while the F150 was actually blowing AC into the seats. So that is my question; how effective is just pulling cabin air through the seats? Anyone here have experience with both the Ford and a Ram? Or at least going from perforated leather in a Ram to ventilated leather? Thanks!
 

JoeCo

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I traded an F150 with cooled leather seats for a Grand Cherokee with just perforated leather seats. I literally cannot drive the GC in the summer in pants (vs. shorts) without sweating, regardless of how cool the ambient air is. I'm hopefully trading the GC in on Ram 2500 with ventilated leather seats. I say ventilated instead of cooled, because as I understand it, the RAM is just circulating cabin air through the seats to help cool you, while the F150 was actually blowing AC into the seats. So that is my question; how effective is just pulling cabin air through the seats? Anyone here have experience with both the Ford and a Ram? Or at least going from perforated leather in a Ram to ventilated leather? Thanks!

Only basing this on a video I have seen testing the ventilated seats in an f150 vs a ram, but I believe they both actually work by a fan that pulls all the warm air from the seat. Well, I'm very sure that's how the rams work from having two and being able to hear the fans when the cooled seats are on.

Mine works fine, although I live in NY and can wear shorts pretty much anytime it gets hot here.
 
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wfodave

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Only basing this on a video I have seen testing the ventilated seats in an f150 vs a ram, but I believe they both actually work by a fan that pulls all the warm air from the seat. Well, I'm very sure that's how the rams work from having two and being able to hear the fans when the cooled seats are on.

Mine works fine, although I live in NY and can wear shorts pretty much anytime it gets hot here.
Thanks - I'll have to try and find that video on YT; shouldn't be too hard I wouldn't think. The F150 seats are definitely blowing AC up into the seat. I can only assume they are fed from the duct that feeds the two small vents at the bottom of the console that serve the back seats, because if you close those, you get a lot more cold air blowing into the seat.
 

JoeCo

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Thanks - I'll have to try and find that video on YT; shouldn't be too hard I wouldn't think. The F150 seats are definitely blowing AC up into the seat. I can only assume they are fed from the duct that feeds the two small vents at the bottom of the console that serve the back seats, because if you close those, you get a lot more cold air blowing into the seat.

Strange, I could have swore I saw they were the same before. I searched it on a ford forum and came across this:


So they are claiming it's the same as the rams, pulling the hot air from the seat rather than blowing cool air into it. It does give a cooling sensation. That being said, I haven't been in an f150 with cooled seats so I can't say that for sure, but I think they work the same as the rams. And I think the perforated holes are just to draw the hot air out easier.
 
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wfodave

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Strange, I could have swore I saw they were the same before. I searched it on a ford forum and came across this:


So they are claiming it's the same as the rams, pulling the hot air from the seat rather than blowing cool air into it. It does give a cooling sensation. That being said, I haven't been in an f150 with cooled seats so I can't say that for sure, but I think they work the same as the rams. And I think the perforated holes are just to draw the hot air out easier.
My only frame of reference was my 2017 F150, and I swear they were actually cooled with AC, and not just relying on drawing air through the seat to help your sweat evaporate and cool you. I don't see how closing off the rear vents would have helped if it was only drawing cabin air through the seats. Of course, Ford did do a redesign and maybe they work differently now. I guess the question is still essentially answered as it would seem the ones in the Ram work well enough that no one seems to be complaining about them.
 
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wfodave

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I read most of that thread and here is the definitive answer cut and pasted below. It appears that Ford blew AC into the seats until the 2019 models and then switched to just drawing cabin air through them like everyone else.
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LOL BC...... Yes in the "Cooled Seats" prior to 2015 they indeed used a TED to expel cooled/conditioned air through the perforations..... as thy still did 2015-2018.... although the latter design got honked up when they slimmed the seats in 2015 to save weight etc.... they "updated" the pre-2015 design but removed both the intake and exhaust ducts from the TEDs and had to replace the intake duct (aka the sock) as part of the TSB and later production changes.

IMHO the pre-2015 seats functioned better ( I had both a 2011 and 2013) but if you installed the SeatGuru product by Tim W. he provided both an intake and exhaust duct to optimize the 2015-2018 seat performance.

In 2019 they dropped the TEDs entirely in favor of conventional "Ventilated" seats using heating pads for heating and airflow sucked into the seats to give the sensation of "cooling"..... as other manufacturers do on their ventilated seats....
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tidefan1967

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If the cooled seats in the newer HD trucks are anything like the setup in the 5th gen half ton trucks it is markedly better than those that were in the 4th gen. The newer trucks also have 3 fan speed settings instead of two like the old trucks.

My last F150 was a 2013 XLT without so I can't help you with the comparison but its worth checking out for sure.
 

mikeru

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Or at least going from perforated leather in a Ram to ventilated leather? Thanks!

Going from perforated leather to ventilated leather is night and day. Perforated leather seats are only marginally better than non-perforated leather because they still hold the heat that they've been soaking in for hours. Ventilated seats pull cabin air in through them to pull out the heat. And as the cabin air gets cooler the seats get cooler. I think they are very effective. I have no experience with the F150 seats, so I can't comment on those.
 

Farmer Fran

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They work great if used as intended. Meaning, if the windows are up and the AC is on. They work good with the windows down
 

sandawilliams

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They work very well in my 2021 2500. The test for me was the day my wife got mad at me about my driving. It burned her ***. I turned her seat cooler on and she calmed right down. :)
 
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